Study Material: Matthew 18:21-22 21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Today’s Teaching: Yesterday, we looked at the issue of offering forgiveness to those who do not ask. This is because we know that unforgiveness can be like a cancer that eats you inside and causes you pain while the offender walks around, sometimes without an acknowledgement of what he or she has done to you. Besides the physical and emotional distress that unforgiveness carries for the victim, it can also serve as an obstacle to spiritual freedom. When your heart is blocked with animosity and pain, there is less room to love. So all in all, we need to forgive.

But when is enough just enough? Peter posed this question to Jesus Christ. Ironically, this was before he had denied Jesus 3 times…but let’s not go back to that again. But he asked Jesus how many times should he forgive his brother or sister (v21). Jesus responded with a figure which implied that we should forgive as often as we need to. But seriously, when someone does the same thing over and over expecting that ‘sorry’ would be sufficient, when is enough enough for you?

It is very hard to keep forgiving someone who hurts you repeatedly. You sometimes even forgive wihout them saying sorry, but they repeat the offense yet again. It is like you and me last week Sunday. How? We lied – maybe nothing major., but we pretended to be asleep to avoid a call, or maybe we said that we liked something just to avoid hurting soeone’s feelings. What about every day last week and even this week? We disobeyed God; and many days we never asked for forgiveness. But are we dead? No? We should be because the wages of sin is death(Rom 6:23a); but God in His mercy has forgiven us every day of every year. Who are we not to forgive?

Take Home Lesson: Do not allow anyone to steal your peace. Forgive as God forgives you. Take back your peace and leave the rest to God.

Homework: Ask God for the grace to forgive repeatedly. It is not easy, but ask God for strength to be more like Him. Ask God to give you peace as well.